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Release GBP as a Community Open Source Project - Possible?

Started by Hawk, August 08, 2015, 09:42:37 AM

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Hawk


Considering the absolute passion the GPB Community has for GPB and yet the seemingly lack of interest from the market that you yourself Piboso have continually put forward as the reasons you keep putting GPB development onto the backburner in favour of your more profitable projects, I'd just like to propose, to you(Piboso), to seriously consider releasing GPB as an open source project(no commercial gains allowed without your permissions) to the GPB community so we can continue it's development at a far greater pace together than you currently have time yourself to devote to the development of GPB at this time.

You may think this is a crazy idea Piboso, but you have continually demonstrated now that GPB for you is at the bottom of your development priority list and consider GPB a no-brainer as far as making a profit for you(as you have stated in the past on several occasions).
So I put it to you(Piboso), to seriously consider releasing GPB as an open source project so that other talented members of the GPB community(including yourself Piboso) can work together to finish this great GPB simulation project of yours.

Crazy idea.... Well maybe not? But for sure you don't get what you don't ask for, right.  ;D

It would be great to hear what Piboso and other members of the GPB community feel about this too......

Post your comments guys and voice your thoughts about this proposal.  ;)


Hawk

BozoCRO

Yea right!  ;D ...and pigs fly.

All of his/their games are based on the same engine, which is unique and the biggest commercial value of the whole project.

Boerenlater

I stopped gaming (and GP-Bikes)

HornetMaX

Can't see this happen, it's asking too much, way too much. And anyway, if it goes opensource, who's gonna work on it ?!

But there are other ways: the argument constantly put forward is that GPB does not sell enough. This is acceptable although a bit normal for a game that has been in beta for so long.

If KRP or MXB are more capable of generating a constant flow of money (i.e. they continue to sell) and GPB is not, then maybe GPB deserves a different commercial model.
The GPB community has proven to be the only one that, despite the long wait and unpleasant bugs, still actually plays the game, more than the two others it seems.

Now, why not giving GPB people the possibility to (somehow) pay for GPB to be developed ?

Set the content for the next release (e.g. this or that bug fix, this or that extra content, this or that feature, etc), set a dev time and a target date, then tell us how much money you'd need: once you have enough promises, you start to collect and when the total is there, you kick off the development.

It could be simpler than that (donations, annual fee, whatever) but if Piboso want something totally formal, here it is ...

MaX.

Boerenlater

QuoteNow, why not giving GPB people the possibility to (somehow) pay for GPB to be developed ?
No thanks, I already did pay for it.
I stopped gaming (and GP-Bikes)

Arvoss

Quote from: HornetMaX on August 08, 2015, 03:40:35 PM
Set the content for the next release (e.g. this or that bug fix, this or that extra content, this or that feature, etc), set a dev time and a target date, then tell us how much money you'd need: once you have enough promises, you start to collect and when the total is there, you kick off the development.

Good idea, just like a Kickstarter project. But we asked PiBoSo 100 times for a donation button and he doesn't want it... That's why I bought another GP Bikes license and a KRP license.

The downside of your idea is that PiBoSo will have much more stress to achieve what he promises. And is money the only reason why V1 is not out yet?

I don't understand why PiBoSo doesn't release an update every month. Even if it's only 1 little fix it would be amazing. Just to show that he's still working on the game and to motivate all the players/customers...

Napalm Nick

QuoteI don't understand why PiBoSo doesn't release an update every month. Even if it's only 1 little fix it would be amazing. Just to show that he's still working on the game and to motivate all the players/customers...

I have thought this too as a good idea for developers, it gives the community something new to play with and discuss and feedback so they keep keen and interested, but more than that it shows development is progressing and is a means of communication just on its own.
"ooh I wonder what update we will get this month!"
"The post you are writing has been written at least ten times already in the last 15ish years. Its already been reported, suggested, discussed, ignored or archived (but mostly ignored). Why are you doing it again?"

Hawk

@Max: I like your ideas a lot, and I think anyone who has a great passion for wanting to see GPB finished to a standard we all hope for would be willing to donate a little extra to achieve that if this is what it will take. But at the same time, I think most of us can remember Piboso's lack of enthusiasm for any financial donations from the GPB community to help in the further development of GPB.  :(

Donating money towards GPB Dev is probably a open wound subject to broach at this time with what recently happened... Emotions still running high I'd guess.  :-\

But yes.... I do find it strange Max that if GPB is the most enthused and played game of all Piboso's projects(which I've no doubt it is), then why can't he see that we(the current hardcore GPB community) are just the foundation of what I believe would be an amazing piece of kit which would out sell any of Piboso's other projects by a country mile if only he would bring it up to a mass-marketable standard quickly.

This is the only simulation, or game for that matter,  that I can honestly say has not ended up in the cupboard corner hardly ever to be played again; and I happened to come across GPB only by accident on Youtube when it was in  Beta 2 or 3  so that's a good few years now. But this is as much to do with the community spirit and online events as it is with GPB itself. One without the other and the whole project would fail miserably in my opinion.

Hawk.

Hawk

Quote from: Arvoss on August 08, 2015, 04:23:17 PM

I don't understand why PiBoSo doesn't release an update every month. Even if it's only 1 little fix it would be amazing. Just to show that he's still working on the game and to motivate all the players/customers...

+1

This has also been suggested before, but it's still an excellent idea for the reasons your have stated Arvoss. But I fear Piboso will not see it the same way?

Hawk.

h106frp

Quote from: Napalm Nick on August 08, 2015, 04:36:27 PM
QuoteI don't understand why PiBoSo doesn't release an update every month. Even if it's only 1 little fix it would be amazing. Just to show that he's still working on the game and to motivate all the players/customers...

I have thought this too as a good idea for developers, it gives the community something new to play with and discuss and feedback so they keep keen and interested, but more than that it shows development is progressing and is a means of communication just on its own.
"ooh I wonder what update we will get this month!"

It might be an idea to use the model adopted by the opensource community; an official supported beta release with unsupported 'test builds' released more frequently for testing and bug reporting only.
This would allow the community to contribute by detecting bugs and gameplay issues before they are released in the next official beta release saving PB a lot of time testing and reducing disappointment in the official releases. 

WALKEN

Impossible.

GPBikes/WRS/KRP/MXBikes  all share the same codes I would imagine.
Help me, help you!

Hawk

Quote from: WALKEN on August 08, 2015, 05:07:38 PM
Impossible.

GPBikes/WRS/KRP/MXBikes  all share the same codes I would imagine.

The same base code yes, but the base code could be protected yet still give access to vital parameters via plugins that tie in to retrieve and alter required data? I guess it all would depend on how Piboso has designed his code: ie: whether it's a modular design(This would then allow for open source code to tie-in to do what is required), or whether the physics coding has been designed in such a way that it cannot be partitioned separately and protected?


I know it's not likely in any way shape or form that Piboso would ever open source GPB, but at least we are now considering some more positive options to try and overcome this persistent problem of GPB being constantly put onto Piboso's backburner of priorities.

Hawk

HornetMaX

Quote from: Boerenlater on August 08, 2015, 04:01:13 PM
QuoteNow, why not giving GPB people the possibility to (somehow) pay for GPB to be developed ?
No thanks, I already did pay for it.
I wrote "possibility" because I meant "possibility", not obligation :)

For the rest, yes I know Piboso is against donations (don't know why, but that's it): that's why the "fund the next beta" model could be an alternative, it won't be a donation. It would be a kind of contract.

Extra pressure ? Well, yes. As anybody creating and selling, there will be pressure. Part of the job.
But it will up to him to size how much a beta would take, so he can size it comfortably.
And it's not because there's some money behind that head will fall if there's a 1 month delay: I guess we're all past that.

Bottom line: it'd be just a way to fund a wannabe product that at the moment it's not being developed due to lack of ... well, fund.
If that's the real reason, then we could work on a solution.

MaX.

P.S.
I don't like the idea of buying additional licenses: I prefer to give 50E as a "donation" or fee than giving 20E as an extra license. I like to call an egg an egg.

Mace-x

Quote from: Arvoss on August 08, 2015, 04:23:17 PM
I don't understand why PiBoSo doesn't release an update every month. Even if it's only 1 little fix it would be amazing. Just to show that he's still working on the game and to motivate all the players/customers...

I dont think he wants that, he likes to release more polished updates, Mxb b3 is well headed altrought it broke a lot of things in the game, now we have b3 but waiting for what b3 should have been, that now will be b4.

What i do like a lot are development blogs, check this one out.

http://www.beamng.com/blogs/

Developers post updates in a weekly basis, some times once a month but they show what are they working on, Piboso did the same for Mxb (cant find the freaking link!), but as the studio is a 3 man band we had an update around once in 2 months.

So, what i propose and would like.
A Piboso Development blog, not focused on a game but on all 4 of them, we are all sim racers and we love sims, that´s why we are here, i´d love to hear news from Gpb, Mxb, Krp and Wrs in one place, even if we dont have pictures, something like:

26/October/2015
Development or just a random picture

Cross patform:
-Various Netcode improvements

Gp Bikes:
-Physics stabilizer improved
-New track objects in progress

Mx bikes:
-Blahblahblah

well, you get the point  ;D

Hawk

+1 Mace-x!  ;)

A dedicated developers blog from Piboso to keep us informed of the developers current and up to date activity and plans would be a great thing.

The continued lack of information as to what is happening and what is being worked on at the current time, what problems they are experiencing, etc, etc, is what I think creates a lot of anger from users, especially when those users have heard hardly anything for months and are waiting in GREAT anticipation for something they perceive will be a BIG improvement only to be let down at the last minute like GPB owners were about three weeks ago even though it has been best part of a year now since the last update/Beta release for GPB.

X-Plane 10 also do an excellent developers blog. Something Piboso could take note of.  :)

A little information on a regular basis goes a long way to stopping people from expecting too much, and also in understanding the problems and issues being experienced in development.

Hawk.